What this check inspects
Shipwork requests /ads.txt, /app-ads.txt, /security.txt, /.well-known/security.txt, /sellers.json and /humans.txt, with a total time budget so a slow host cannot hold the request open. For ads.txt it also parses the lines and counts how many are malformed, since each line needs a domain, a publisher id and a relationship.
What a failure means
A missing ads.txt is a warning: if you sell programmatic ads, unauthorised resellers can sell your inventory and you may not be paid for it. An empty ads.txt is a warning for the same reason. Malformed lines are a warning because they are ignored. A missing security.txt is informational.
How to fix it
- If you sell programmatic inventory, publish a valid ads.txt with one line per authorised seller.
- Check every ads.txt line has exactly the three fields it needs, in the right order.
- Publish security.txt, at the root or under /.well-known, with a contact and an expiry.
- Keep sellers.json in step with who is actually allowed to sell your inventory.
A typical failure, worked through
The setupA publisher adds ads.txt by copying a partner file, but one line is missing the relationship field.
What the check reportsThe check reports ads.txt present, then reports that one of the lines is malformed. That line is ignored, so the seller it was meant to authorise is not authorised.
The pointA present-but-wrong file produces no error anywhere. Only parsing it reveals that a line does nothing.